‘Atheism is boring’

[rug]

British comedian Sanderson Jones leads the Sunday Assembly, a “godless congregation” for atheists that started in England, at Wooly Mammoth Theatre. (Photo by Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)

By Becky Garrison
November 25 at 12:50 pm

Upon initial glance, the media coverage for the U.K. based Sunday Assembly veers toward the hyperbolic with media outlets classifying this “atheist church” as a “megachurch” with its London congregation averaging 600 to 700 attendees. (According to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, the term megachurch generally refers to a congregation with a sustained average weekly attendance of 2,000 persons or more.) The Daily Beast may not be factually accurate when they designate Sunday Assembly as “the fastest growing church.”

- snip -

Gretta Vosper, an out atheist who is found founder of the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity and a minister of West Hill Church in Toronto, places this surge of interest in Sunday Assembly within the larger cultural shift she’s observed transpiring more liberal congregations.

“Many people think that those who are interested in being part of an atheist church are religion haters –people who just want to express their anger toward traditional religion and the lies they believe they were told,” Vosper says. But they aren’t the people we’re seeing at West Hill. The people who are really looking for what we have to offer –a church that never uses the word “God,” talks about Jesus, or reads from the Bible –are those who want to be in a community that will inspire them to love, not hate. They want to be good, to live compassionately in a challenging and often hostile world. They want their children to grow up within a community that cares for them and will help them develop a positive value system by which to live. They want to change the world and make it better. Those are the kind of people we see in the pews at West Hill.”

Though Vosper, along with the Sunday Assembly co-founders Pippa Evans, and Sanderson Jones consider themselves to be atheists, they craft services designed to attract anyone looking to explore how they can live a life of meaning regardless of that person’s particular religious beliefs. Hence, though media outlets focus on the “atheistic” element of these churches, these leaders choose to deliver an inspirational message rather than proclaim an anti-God talk. When describing the ethos of Sunday Assembly, Jones paints with a broad brush. “I’d like to make this as un-atheistic as possible. Atheism is boring. We’re both post-religious.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/11/25/atheism-is-boring/

[cbayer]

1. Post-religious - now there's an interesting concept.

It might be a step in developing a new nomenclature that doesn't rely on the language traditionally used to describe religious groups, meetings and traditions.

[elfin]

2. Yup - needs candles, sparkly vestments, LOTS of incense, Dirges

It may be the truth (and I think it is), but to attract the masses, it needs more panoply and pageantry.

Plus thunderous pipe organs!

[Fumesucker]

3. I might even consider going for the thunderous pipe organ part

//

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Post-religious, and yet they surround themselves with the trappings of religious habits.

I don't get it.

[cbayer]

5. Because they liked and miss the things that a church provided.

They just don't want the god part.

Pretty simple.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. IS there data on how many of these people used to be religious?

Versus how many never were?

[cbayer]

7. If there is, I haven't seen it.

But the article talks about that particular segment of the population that is attending these services, and that's what they say.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. UU's and atheist Friends have been doing this for years...

why can't we get this kind of publicity?

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Religious services are boring

No matter how they're disguised.

[cbayer]

10. I'm guessing you have never been to a black church in the south.

If you find that boring, you are really missing out.

If you ever get a chance to go to New Orleans Jazz Fest, make sure to check out the Gospel Tent.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. I grew up in Orthodox Judaism

I loved the services when I was a child, but when I got older, they were boring and endless.

It's not the liveliness or lack of it that makes them boring. It's the content.

Aside from which, I can't stand jazz.

[cbayer]

12. The New Orleans Jazz Festival actually has very little jazz.

You might want to check it out sometime.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. Atheism is boring; atheists aren't.

Being an atheist is not liking snooker.

Being interested in snooker is interesting; you can talk to people about snooker because of it.

Not being interested in snooker is not interesting. But most people who aren't interested in snooker are interested in other things, which they can talk to people about.

A club for snooker-players makes perfect sense.

The only reason one might join a club for non-snooker-players is if one lives in a society where snooker is rammed down ones throat so often that one needs a respite from it, or to fight back.

[Gore1FL]

14. Everyone gets their community somewhere.

This wouldn't be my choice.